Canucks impatiently waiting for Eddie to rise, shine

Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun columnist04.09.2013

Defenceman Alex Edler is making some fans nervous with a rash of blue-line blunders this season, especially now that he's been with the Vancouver Canucks for a half dozen years. He admits life without defensive partner Sami Salo has been a tough adjustment.

Related

VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Canucks got back Ryan Kesler on Monday. Now they need Alex Edler.

After all their struggles this truncated season — the injuries, the crisis at centre ice, the oxymoron power play, the lack of Sedinery for stretches and the universal inability to win faceoffs — the Canucks suddenly have a lineup that at least looks comparable to the one that played for the Stanley Cup two years ago.

Last week’s acquisition of another offensive centre, Derek Roy, and the surprise return from injury of Kesler without even one full practice, makes the Canucks a significantly better team.

They’re 3-0 with Roy after beating the Phoenix Coyotes 2-0 on Monday. Kesler scored, so Allen Iverson must have been on to something about the frivolity of practising.

Assuming Kesler stays healthy and plays well enough to have a trickle-up effect, luring some defenders away from Daniel and Henrik Sedin and making the power play better (there are a lot of invisible “ifs” in this sentence), he is powerless to help Edler.

Not quite 27, but 423 games into his National Hockey League career, Edler is old enough to help himself.

With a six-year, $30-million-US contract extension beginning next season, the Swede will be paid like a No. 1 defenceman. He needs to play like one, too.

Edler can be a game-changer, impactful at each end of the ice. But too often this season he has been noticeable for mistakes that cause a scoring chance or penalty or goal.

“I think Alex, throughout the year, has had some real good moments (but) shown signs of not the consistency we’re looking for,” Canuck coach Alain Vigneault said diplomatically. “He’s still a young player and we’re working with him to put it all together and become the player we think he can become.”

But Edler isn’t young in experience. He has spent 6½ years with the Canucks and played 10 playoff rounds, none of them worse than his alarming performance in last spring’s first-round loss to the Los Angeles Kings.

It seems surprising that he is still prone to big mistakes, something nearly all top defencemen avoid.

“I’m not sure surprised would be the word,” Vigneault said. “I would say that we expect him to do it more consistently. We believe that (ability) is there and we believe he has to be able to handle the moments. He’s got to be able to make the plays.”

It wasn’t quite a cannon shot from the coach across Edler’s bow, but it should get the defenceman’s attention. And if that doesn’t, Edler’s ice time of 22:39 on Monday was marginally third among Vancouver defencemen for the third consecutive game.

In Saturday’s win against the Calgary Flames, Edler logged 21:32. The game before against the Edmonton Oilers, he played 21:19.

He still leads Canuck defencemen with an average TOI of 23:44, but Edler wasn’t on the ice in the final minute Monday as Vancouver hung on against Phoenix.

“I think it’s been a little too much up and down this season,” Edler said before the game. “The team also has been a little bit up and down. But I want to be a little more consistent and have a lot of good games, and not as many where I’m not as good. I don’t think it’s just one thing. Confidence is obviously a huge part of everyone’s game. But if you don’t feel like you’re on top of your game, you just have to keep it simple and, for myself, try to stay intense and battle hard and the rest will come.”

He had a quiet game against the Coyotes, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Edler these days.

With six goals and 18 points in 37 games, he is actually having a pretty good season offensively.

Edler doesn’t have to carry an unreasonable offensive burden. The blue-line includes Dan Hamhuis (19 points), Jason Garrison (11 points) and Kevin Bieksa (six goals). So, no one’s asking for Edler to be Bobby Orr or Paul Coffey. He just has to play more like, say, Sami Salo.

When Salo wasn’t injured, the former Canuck epitomized the less-is-more idea of playing defence in the NHL. Salo has a booming shot and can pass under pressure as well as anyone. But what made him so reliable in Vancouver was what Salo didn’t do. He didn’t give away the puck, didn’t get caught out of position, didn’t take penalties except as a last resort.

Salo was Edler’s partner and role model until he left as a free agent last summer when the Canucks balked at giving a 38-year-old more than one year on a new contract. Salo has 15 points in 36 games and is a team-leading plus-11 for the lousy Tampa Bay Lightning.

Edler has missed Salo. Bieksa, a risk-reward defenceman who has also struggled for consistency, has not had the calming effect on Edler that Salo did.

“I just think me and Kevin, as a pair, need to get more comfortable with each other,” Edler said. “We’ve been on the same team a long time but we haven’t really played together, ever.

“Of course you miss playing with a guy like Sami. Who wouldn’t want to play with a guy like that? It was nice for the years I played with him to be able to build up something together. But we have so many good defencemen, that it doesn’t really matter who you play with.”

The Canucks do have some good defencemen. But at this point, Edler is the only one capable of becoming great. The clock is ticking.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Share

Canucks impatiently waiting for Eddie to rise, shine

Video

Today's News

Best of Postmedia

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Ignore the diversions in the United States: athletes kneeling or standing during the national anthem; Republicans flailing and failing again on health care; a kick-boxing creationist possibly becoming senator from Alabama. Calamity looms elsewhere. We are hurtling toward war with North Korea. It may be as early as next month. […]

It wasn’t in the middle of a farmer’s muddy field or deep in the boreal forest where the Canadian oilsands truly struck pay dirt. It was inside Fort McMurray’s recreation centre. More than 1,400 oilpatch workers, corporate executives, provincial leaders and the country’s prime minister assembled 21 years ago in northern Alberta to grasp a […]

Google’s powerful search engine is defeating some court-ordered publication bans in Canada and undermining efforts to protect young offenders and victims. Computer experts believe it’s an unintended, “mind-boggling” consequence of Google search algorithms. In six high-profile cases documented by the Citizen, searching the name of a young offender or victim online pointed to media coverage […]

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.